Roles and Responsibilities
Various government departments, agencies and local authorities play a role in overseeing and delivering policy on contaminated land. The main players are:
Local Authorities: Local authorities are the principal regulators under contaminated land legislation. They produce strategies to identify potential contaminated land in their areas, and they are responsible for deciding whether land is “contaminated land” as defined by the law. Once land is identified as contaminated land, they also have primary responsibility for ensuring that remediation takes place, and for deciding who should be liable for the costs. Local authorities tend to liaise closely with the Environment Agency, particularly when sites may qualify as “special sites”.
Defra: the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs oversees contaminated land legislation (Part 2A of the Environmental Protection Act) and policy associated with it (e.g. negotiation of the proposed EU Soil Framework Directive). Defra also runs the Contaminated Land Capital Projects Programme, which assists local authorities in investigating and remediating contaminated land.
CLG: The Department for Communities and Local Government oversees the planning system, including how land contamination should be dealt with under Planning Policy Statement 23 . CLG also oversees policy on the development of brownfield land (e.g. in pursuit of the Government’s housing targets).
Environment Agency: The Environment Agency has two main roles. (1) The Agency is the Government’s principal scientific and technical adviser on contaminated land. In this capacity, the Agency has produced government-backed non-statutory technical guidance on various aspects of contaminated land. The Agency also assesses applications made under Defra’s Contaminated Land Capital Projects Programme. (2) The Agency is the regulator of “special sites” under the Part 2A regime.
Health Protection Agency: The HPA is the Government’s principal scientific and technical adviser on health effects of toxic substances. It works closely with the Environment Agency and the Food Standards Agency on producing technical guidance on contaminated land (as it relates to human health). The HPA also provides advice to local authorities in relation to specific cases of land contamination.
Natural England: Natural England is a non-departmental government body which aims to help conserve and enhance England’s natural environment. It can provide advice on the impacts of land contamination on biodiversity and the natural environment, and it works closely with the Environment Agency to provide guidance on these matters.
Page last modified: 8 August 2008